The reversible ratchet wrench has been known for many years and there are numerous tools which have been disclosed with varying handles, drive means, pawls, and means for reversing the operation of the wrench.
The following patents disclose reversible ratchet wrenches:
376,584; 1,138,276; 1,140,167; 1,854,513; 1,868,839; 1,957,462; 2,658,416; 2,680,983; 2,686,446; 2,701,977; 2,720,127; 2,725,722; 2,891,434; 2,943,523; 2,957,377; 2,978,081; 2,982,160; 3,096,659; 3,140,625; 3,145,594; 3,233,481; 3,299,725; 3,369,416; 3,448,641; 3,490,317; 3,713,356; 3,724,298; 3,754,486; 3,967,514; 4,274,311; 4,277,990; 4,300,413; 4,308,769; 4,324,158; 4,328,720; 4,336,728; 4,485,700; 4,491,043; 4,532,832; 4,561,329; 4,631,988; 4,722,253; 4,903,554; 4,986,147; and French patent No. 1,029,033.
However, these ratchet wrenches are expensive to produce. The wrenches often require extensive and expensive milling operations to provide spaces in the head of the wrench for the driving means, the pawl, springs and other components. Frequently, blind openings are provided which may or may not be interconnected. These openings are usually formed in opposing faces of the head of the wrench entailing multiple tooling steps. Also, most of the wrenches include a plurality of small parts which are labor intensive to assemble. Further, the configuration and interrelation of the components, in many instances, requires a comparatively long time to assemble.
For example, the wrench of Hall (U.S. Pat. No. 4,277,990) has a closed end chamber for the ratchet gear formed from the bottom of the wrench and a closed end chamber for the pawl formed from the top of the wrench. Hall further discloses a helical spring single retaining ring means which engages kerfs in the gear chamber and on the pawl to retain the gear and pawl in their respective chambers.
A commercial model of a ratchet wrench (Sears Model 43714) which has been marketed for approximately thirty years also has chambers formed from opposite faces of the wrench and has a closed end chamber to receive the socket gear. Other references disclose the driver having a flange engaging one planar surface of the head and a planar surface of the pawl and a retainer engaging the other planar surface of the head.
There exists a need for a ratchet wrench which has comparatively few separate parts, in which the need for expensive and extensive tooling is significantly reduced, which can be assembled easily and rapidly by relatively unskilled labor, and in which repairs and replacement of parts are easily accomplished. The wrench should also permit "cosmetic" changes for different market segments.